Huge DAW Setup & Moving from Mac OSX to Windows.

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14 Nov 2012
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152
Location
Greenock, UK
Firstly, I'd like to say hello.
This is my first post in the forum and I look forward to spending more time here.

So lets get down to business....

I am a Mac user, the only reason is because I use Logic as my audio DAW.
Mac's are over priced and now that I have really drilled down into what line of work I use my machine for each day I know that a windows machine will be much better.

So here is the short of it.....
As a composer I use very large samples for orchestral work, my sessions are huge and the issue is read times on the drives and the amount and speed of the RAM I have.

My current setup is:

Mac Pro 2008
2x Xeon 2.8Ghz 5400 Harpertown (stock)
12GB 800Mhz ECC RAM (upgrade)
GeForce 8800GT (upgrade)
Radeon 2500HD (stock)
1x 320GB 7200rpm HDD (stock)
2x 1TB 7200rpm HDD (upgrade)
2x 256GB SSD SATA3 (upgrade)


Read and write times have been sorted by the SSDs although my Mac is only SATA2 so I am not getting the full performance of SATA3 here.

So now I have decided to make the full switch away from Mac and to go back to Windows 7 64Bit Ultimate, and go back to using Cubase. Sorted.

Now I just need a machine that can handle and vastly out perform my current mac.

Budget is £1800-£2000

Requirements:
CPU - i7 3960x or Xeons, I am undecided here and of course know this dictates most other parts.

Motherboard - Must be able to hold 64GB 1600/2400 or more. (This is critical)

RAM - Must be 1600/2400 64GB or more

Graphics - I am not hugely worried here, it would be nice to have a decent card but is MUST have 3 outputs for my 3 screens. (HDMI/VGA/DVI which ever).

HDD - No issue here, I have two SATA3 SSDs to use and will get more in the future.

Case - Something that will keep it cool and quiet, I'd rather spend the extra cash and get something of quality, also It would be nice to have it rack mounted if possible.

Audio - No need

USB/Firewire - It MUST have Firewire support for 2 inputs 400/800. USB 2/3 for 4 - 8 inputs.

Sorry if I come across cheeky here as this is my first post, but please do not underestimate how important RAM is for this, this is not a DAW for recording bands and handling static audio, its for handling massive session of Virtual Instruments for Orchestra Mock Ups.

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can give, its been a while since I was dabbling in PC parts again!

Cheers,
Kristopher
www.kristopherfisheraudio.com
 
Hi Liquid,

Ive had a quick browse over it, what are your thoughts? Are you a current cubase user?


Posted from Overclockers.co.uk App for Android
 
Still using version 5 here, I say using more like not using haha I'm still very much a noob on it. My producer flatmate uses logic on his mac mini and he's very adept at it, so I tend to just sit with him doing production.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3930K 3.20GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £459.95
1 x Cooler Master Cosmos II Ultra Tower Case - Black £279.98
1 x POV-TGT GeForce GTX 670 Charged 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Borderlands 2 & Assassin's Creed III PC Games £259.99
1 x Asus P9X79 PRO Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £221.99
1 x Silverstone Strider 1200W Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply (SST-ST1200-G) £145.99
2 x Avexir MPower Series 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Quad Channel Kit (AVD3U16001008G-4CM) £119.99 (£239.98)
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket /LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/LGA2011/AM2/AM3/FM1/FM2) £91.99
2 x Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm 5400 RPM Cooling Fan, D1225C12BBAP-31 £19.99 (£39.98)
Total : £1,760.08 (includes shipping : £16.85).




PSU is overkill but its just 30 quid more than 850W one...

3970x is useful if you going to overclock, but I guess you need stability 3930k will do.

Case is nice, but you can save 100 quid or so by going cheaper, its just soo sexay though :D

Since you going to have 8 sticks of ram, I`ve gone for water cooling since that would save you problems with heatsinks etc... With 2 fans to replace standart corsair ones, or to add on to. Those 2 fans are beasts, they are 13db louder than stock corsair ones but push through 2wise as much air... But I doubt it will ever go up to 5400rpm so it will be quiet.


Might want to treat yourself to 670SLI since that would push budget up to about 2000.. If CUDA is no use to you theres no point getting such expensive GPU.
 
Last edited:
are you going to be overclokcing the cpu?

if not a lower air cooler can be used

Platnium seasonic PSU - top quality is an understatement

pre-noise dampened case, to keep things quiet for you, aslo good nice case

32 gb of 2400mhz ram, colour also suits mboard

mboard will allow another 32 gb of ram and theres room in budget if you wanted to go to 2k to double up
3930k is on pre-order as ocuk when it will be back in

h100i water cooling , quiet and will allow very good overclock if you will be doing so

gtx 670 good card, 3 outputs as requested

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3930K 3.20GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £459.95
1 x Asus Rampage IV Extreme Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £334.99
1 x POV-TGT GeForce GTX 670 Charged 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Borderlands 2 & Assassin's Creed III PC Games £259.99
1 x GeIL EVO Veloce Hot-Rod Red 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Quad Channel Kit (GEV332GB2400C11AQC) £249.95
1 x Seasonic 860w '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply £169.99
1 x OcUK Tech Labs - BitFenix Shinobi XL Windowed Big Tower - Black - Noise Dampened Case £149.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket /LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/LGA2011/AM2/AM3/FM1/FM2) £91.99
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-04 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
Total : £1,751.84 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
Last edited:
Hi guys, thanks Dunn2012 & Lazder for getting in on this...

I have a question though, the 3930K, is there much difference between this and the 3960X?

- Kris

I was originally quoted this for £1800.... (inc VAT & Labor).

CPU - Intel i7 3960X 3.3GHz 6 Core Socket 2011
CPU Cooler - Corsair H80 Hydro Cooler
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-X79_UD5 Intel X79 Socket 2011
RAM - 64GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz (8x8)
HDD - 1TB Segate Barracuda 7200rpm
DVD - SATA DVDRW
PSU - Crosair TXT750W Enthusiast Series
Graphics - MSI Nvidia GeForce 1GB GTX 560Ti
Case - Coolermaster Silencio 550

Im sure if the CPU was already on the Motherboard then I could build it all myself, never attached a CPU before though....

I like the idea of having 8 RAM slots and buying 4x8 sticks of 2400 and then adding another 32GB when the time comes and the prices drop....

- Kris
 
Hi guys, thanks Dunn2012 & Lazder for getting in on this...

I have a question though, the 3930K, is there much difference between this and the 3960X?

- Kris

I was originally quoted this for £1800.... (inc VAT & Labor).

CPU - Intel i7 3960X 3.3GHz 6 Core Socket 2011
CPU Cooler - Corsair H80 Hydro Cooler
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-X79_UD5 Intel X79 Socket 2011
RAM - 64GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz (8x8)
HDD - 1TB Segate Barracuda 7200rpm
DVD - SATA DVDRW
PSU - Crosair TXT750W Enthusiast Series
Graphics - MSI Nvidia GeForce 1GB GTX 560Ti
Case - Coolermaster Silencio 550

Im sure if the CPU was already on the Motherboard then I could build it all myself, never attached a CPU before though....

I like the idea of having 8 RAM slots and buying 4x8 sticks of 2400 and then adding another 32GB when the time comes and the prices drop....

- Kris

2400 is not going to give you any performance increase... The only time above 1600mhz is needed is when you have IGP like amd 5800K.

Attaching CPU is 1 of the easiest things a man can do... Most dificult part is attaching cpu Cooler onto the CPU... Rest is just lego.

3930k is a value for money option, If you want to burn money they get 3960x... Performance increase isnt worth the value by miles.
 
Hi guys, thanks Dunn2012 & Lazder for getting in on this...

I have a question though, the 3930K, is there much difference between this and the 3960X?

- Kris

I was originally quoted this for £1800.... (inc VAT & Labor).

CPU - Intel i7 3960X 3.3GHz 6 Core Socket 2011
CPU Cooler - Corsair H80 Hydro Cooler
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-X79_UD5 Intel X79 Socket 2011
RAM - 64GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz (8x8)
HDD - 1TB Segate Barracuda 7200rpm
DVD - SATA DVDRW
PSU - Crosair TXT750W Enthusiast Series
Graphics - MSI Nvidia GeForce 1GB GTX 560Ti
Case - Coolermaster Silencio 550

Im sure if the CPU was already on the Motherboard then I could build it all myself, never attached a CPU before though....

I like the idea of having 8 RAM slots and buying 4x8 sticks of 2400 and then adding another 32GB when the time comes and the prices drop....

- Kris


3930k vs 3960k - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/552?vs=443

Can I also recommend the X79-UP4, its part of the ultra durable 5 range and so features the IR3550 powerstages.

Also if you are wanting to go past 4.5GHz as an overclock I would say get the H100i or a decent air cooler to cope with the heat.
 
I have a 3930k and if you plan to overclock I would pay particular attention to the cooling as they put out a lot of heat, I found air cooling too noisy under load and skipped closed loop water for a water cooling kit from xspc, with this I settled on a compromise of 4.5ghz as I can leave the fans at 600rpm idle and at full load it is around 60-70 degrees, when rendering, I use Cubase 5 aswell but not used it much with this pc.
 
Guys, might be a stupid question, but how do you import the shopping cart like you all have?

I have built a spec, and I want you guys to tear it apart and let me know what you think.....
 
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